HOUSTON – The Tigers of Texas Southern University are headed back to Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals after claiming an 80-70 win Tuesday over Southern.

At TSU’s H&PE Arena Senior guard Jalyn Patterson tallied a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds to help lead the No. 2-seeded Tigers (20-12) to victory. He also handed out eight assists in the game.

Devocio Butler scored a game-high 16 points and pulled in seven rebounds for the Tigers, while Jeremy Combs added 11 points for TSU. Eden Ewing and Tyrik Armstrong chipped in 10 points apiece for the Tigers.

With the win, the Tigers head to Birmingham, Ala., for the next round of the tournament. TSU will face No. 6-seed Alabama State, which upset No. 3-seeded Jackson State in Mississippi on Tuesday. The Tigers and Hornets will face off at 8:30 p.m. on Friday.

The Tigers turned a complete 180-degree turn in the win over Southern, which beat the Tigers only three days before to conclude the regular season. In Saturday’s game, the Tigers fell behind 8-0 and never tied or took the lead. In the rematch, TSU jumped out to an early lead, and with the exception of Southern tying the score at 2-2, the Tigers never relinquished their lead.

The host Tigers used a 13-3 run between the 6:13 and 2:51 marks of the first half to create some distance between themselves and the Jaguars. Combs ignited the run with a layup, then a dunk off a steal; Patterson scored seven points during the run.

TSU twice led by as many as 20 points in the second half, only to see Southern cut that lead in half later in the period. However, it would be too little, too late for the Jaguars, who would not cut the lead to single-digits for the entirety of the second half.

The Tigers shot 47.5 percent (29 of 61) from the floor during the game, and 36.4 percent (8 of 22) from 3-point range.

Trayvon Reed contributed seven points and eight rebounds for the Tigers, while Justin Hopkins chipped in six points and four rebounds for TSU.

Southern’s Richard Lee led the Jaguars with 13 points, far below his Saturday total when he scored 30 points against the Tigers on 9-of-12 shooting from 3-point range.

The win was TSU’s 14th win in its last 15 games at the postseason SWAC Tournament. The Tigers have won seven consecutive tournament games since falling to Southern 81-73 in the semifinal round of the 2016 tournament at Houston’s Toyota Center.

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